PitchRight S02 concludes with a Grand Finale

PitchRight S02, an initiative by Zone Startups India, comes to its conclusion with the final shoot of the Grand Finale episode that announced the winners of the season. The Grand Finale was a curated, invite-only event that saw presence of close to 100 guests, which largely included investors, corporates, industry leaders and media personnel.

PitchRight has a unique format that focuses on improving the startup pitch of an entrepreneur through a 45-second elevator pitch, followed by a one-on-one feedback session.

PitchRight S01 garnered more than 350K views on Zone Startup India’s YouTube playlist, while receiving positive reviews from viewers for its fresh approach on the idea of an elevator pitch in a very literal sense. PitchRight S02 was launched in August 2018 by further making the experience of elevator pitches thrilling. This season has garnered over 320K views within a span of 90 days, on different digital platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Times MX Player

With over 240 applications received this season, the top 13 entrepreneurs from diverse sectors of technology were shortlisted to feature in the series. The episodes were shot in the month of October 2018 at the Bombay Stock Exchange building, that houses the office of Zone Startups India. The series, featuring 4-5 minute episodes, went live in December 2018 with one episode releasing each week.

Prolific angel investor Sanjay Mehta has been a judge on the show for both the seasons. He has many achievements and awards under his belt and has invested in over 100 startups till date, that includes some well-known names like Oyo Rooms, Box8, Zippr, LogiNext, PrettySecrets, Unbxd and FabAlley. He is an active member of many investment networks in India.

“PitchRight S02 finale reality show was inspiring, full of excitement due to so many unknowns. It was a real thriller as the entrepreneurs pitched to the investors to make a deal. Everyone was on the spot be it investors as they had to commit money, real money instantaneously and entrepreneurs had to accept or refuse the offer right away. It’s a challenge for entrepreneurs to go live pitching & very few can dare. Lastly I can say that PitchRight reality show has superbly motivated entrepreneurship in India,” said Sanjay Mehta, sharing from his experience of hosting the Grand Finale of PitchRight.

The finalists pitched their startups during the live shoot to raise on-spot funding from top angel investors and seed investment from Zone Startups India. The startup pitch of 3 minutes each was followed by a feedback session and negotiations for potential on-spot funding.

After an interesting dynamic of startup pitches showcased at the Grand Finale, Zone Startups India announced Dhaval Udani, Founder of danamojo, and Ranjeet Deshmukh, Founder of RoadBounce, as the two winners of PitchRight S02, who were selected for a seed fund investment of INR 5 lakhs each.

On-spot funding was granted by several key investors. A total of INR 1 crore 45 lakhs on-spot funding was offered to 4 startups, out of which 2 startups raised a total of 75 lakhs post negotiations at the Grand Finale Demo Day. These will now be syndicated through a seed round to be led by Let’s Venture, Investment Partner of PitchRight S02. Atharva Sabnis, Co-founder of Atron, raised the highest on-spot funding on the day.

Based on the live scoring done by investors, corporates, mentors, media and other key stakeholders from the audience panel, the People’s Choice Award winner, with the maximum votes, was announced as Prasad Kajarekar, Co-founder of GameBlitz. He received a grant of INR 50,000/- from Zone Startups India.

Ajay Ramasubramaniam, Director India, Zone Startups said, “PitchRight is a format that we conceptualized mainly for curating content around how to get your elevator pitch right. We have had some really good viewership of the content – which is good validation of the format. However, what has been more encouraging this year, is the turnout of investors at the Grand Finale, and participating in a round of live, on-spot funding – a truly enriching experience for all involved. We look forward to taking the format to greater heights with some strong partnerships lined up for the upcoming seasons.”

Season 02 of PitchRight is supported by Department of Science and Technology (GoI) and presented by LazyPay, in association with DigitalOcean as the cloud partner, Vidooly as the online video partner, Eske as the gift sponsor & LetsVenture as the investment partner.